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Meh. 8/13/12

We’re roughly six months into SotMK and the amount of misinformation that is still passed on to guests is alarming. I’ve always stuck up for the cast members working this attraction and will continue to do so. However the lack of communication among those on stage and off stage is simply unacceptable. I’m not sure if coordinators, management, or any other higher ups know exactly what your cast members are telling guests in regards to SotMK. The better question is, do you even care?

I have the responsibility of gathering as much information and asking as many questions as I can for the purposes of writing this blog. The SotMK community is a large one and I have taken it upon myself to do my best to bring them any and all information. With that said when I’m at the Magic Kingdom I try to talk to as many cast members as I can. For the most part all of them have friendly and warm personalities which is a plus. However most of them have no clue what is going on with this attraction. Which is a major problem. Here’s some of the things I’ve been told by cast members about SotMK in the past few weeks.

“You can still get cards 61-70 in the packs we hand out, it’s like 1 in 1000.”

“The medium/hard levels are never coming back, the Imagineers told us so.”

“I only need your park ticket to give you spell cards.”

“I only need your key card to give you spell cards.”

“I need both your key card and park ticket to give you spell cards.”

“Yeah the system crash was due to a server overload.”

“I don’t know why the system crashed.”

“Oh, we’re going to start selling the cards?”

At the risk of sounding even more redundant I’ll stop there. I understand there is a decent amount of cast member turn over at this location. Which is likely due to the Disney College Program, and the fact this cast is considered Main Street Ops and is not solely devoted to SotMK. However it’s no excuse to have a bunch of people working in an area in which they aren’t given any information about. Thus when approached with a question they don’t have an answer for, at the risk of upsetting the guest they’ll make up something off the top of their head. I’d have to equate that to having a Jungle Cruise Skipper that doesn’t know the spiel. It’s bad show. Get with it, everyone needs to be on the same page and there needs to be some consistency. To be completely honest I think we’d all rather be given the stock “I don’t know.” Instead of being fed nonsense. Take some pride in this attraction, the guests deserve better.

It does seem to make sense that an operation with the resources of WDW could manage to get out the correct information for guests if they intend to continue the SOTMK attraction. It causes a lot of confusion even to the casual player & makes it seem like a hobby or abandoned concept. I hope they get their act together before the fall season starts!

Well thats good but we do give out accurate info but thanks for not askin redundant questions that make cast members blue in the face because they seem sick and tired of answering same questions in which they do know about

Hey buddy, as someone who does know the attraction and knows the cast members, you should back off. Just like any new attraction there are bugs and oppertunities to be better but the cast know what they are talking about. If you have such a problem please do not come play. You stop asking cast members and find out like the rest of the world when it happens. Some of the info is wrong that cast members are saying but we take pride in our job and do not need guests like you running your mouth when you do not know or work the operation oh And that pertains to all of you who wrote on this.Thank you and have a magical day

Hmm don’t read it kinda like if you do not like the info they give out you should stop asking and find out for yourself when it actually happens. Ohh buddy i certainly know more than you’ll ever know 🙂 oh and uh have a nice day

This is a situation where the Cast Members need to put together a list of the most frequently asked questions and give that list to their managers. The managers can then work with the Imagineers to put together an official FAQ sheet for the Cast Members. This should be accessible to not only the attraction Cast Members but also the Cast Members working in each land that has an SOTMK Portal. Even if the official answer is, “they haven’t announced anything about that yet”, at least it’s a uniform answer.

This was either a game that was dumbed down after it was designed or we are missing a lot of instructions on how to play it. What do the numbers on the bottom of the cards mean? What are the symbols for? What are the different colors for? What are the combinations that can be used and why should you use them? Does the card really get more powerful the more you use it? People have made a lot of assumptions about these questions but Disney has yet to release anything official. Tell us how to play the game. That is all we are asking.

As a cast member in another park, I can tell you from experience that I’ve received more belittling comments from guests after telling them honestly that “I didn’t know” than telling them a half-truth/rumor. And don’t think that coordinators know the answers and have passed them along to frontline cast who have forgotten them. Much of this information is not given out, which only perpetuates the problem.

David, it truly is a shame when a guest chastises you for telling them the truth, people like that have no class. I personally believe that telling the guests “I don’t know” or “I don’t have access to that information” is a better way to go.

I don’t believe coordinators have all of the info, the main issue is the communication with onstage & offstage cast. The fact that the behind the scenes crew doesn’t keep you informed properly is wrong.

I won’t disagree, and when I’ve tried explaining that usually the frontline cast members are the last to know about topics that people have read on blogs, they don’t believe that either. Those leaks and rumors are planted very well by the marketing and publicity department. If Disney wants to keep information from you, they can. If they don’t, they’ll leak it out very well so it can’t be traced to them.

As for guests’ behavior, I can assure you that being belittled by guests for saying “I don’t know” is the least of what we have to go through. I’ve routinely called a racist, a homophobe, a socialist, and a rightwing nutjob–not because I’m doing anything other than following our procedures concerning safety, maintenance, etc. I’ve even been told that I should go back to school and get more education so I could get a better job. We’re also subjected to physical violence. I’ve been pushed multiple times, punched once, and had guests thrown out of the park 4 times.

I say this not to win sympathy for cast members who may be less than pleasant–but just to let you know what we all go through. No, not on a daily basis, but these aren’t uncommon occurrences. It is sad, but the number of bad guests are on the rise. Disney parks are becoming more and more like Universal in regard to guests’ behavior.

remember that there are A LOT of cast members, and this still is a new attraction, a lot of the cast may think they do know the answers when most hear things just the same as guests do, by asking questions and looking online. If you want to know information about Sorcerer’s of the Magic Kingdom, ask the cast that actually works with it not just any cast member, they are regular people too and can’t be expected to know everything

Well “Wewe” so you are aware I don’t just ask “any” cast member questions about SotMK. I only chat with those specifically tied to that attraction. I do realize cast members are regular people, and I always treat them with respect. No one expects them to know everything. However making things up to placate guests is wrong, simply saying “I don’t know” or “I am not at liberty to say.” Is better than spewing nonsense just to please someone. With anything in life if you don’t know or aren’t sure just be honest.

The post above was meant to highlight the issues with the lack of communication between the behind the scenes and onstage cast. These are my opinions and there are many that feel the same way.

another thing i’d like to add is this is new and just like when Disneyland opened, it is not perfect. the papers criticized Disneyland calling it unorganized and chaotic. it got better with time and so will this. the cast are doing their best and are only saying what they are told to say. not every cast member is there every day at every second, so it does take time to get the word out when things change. give this time to grow and stop criticizing the cast. i’m not saying every cast member says or does the right thing 100% of the time, there are those that unfortunately…have attitudes if you will, but it’s for reasons such as blogs and criticisms like this that push the cast to the edge to be like that. what benefit does the cast have to lie to a guest? it will only make the guest angry and cause unnecessary stress for the cast member and the guest. with this game knowing, the guests will return and the cast member has a higher chance of further interaction, so they don’t want that stressful situation to happen over and over…just think about it

If you read the post you’d understand my criticism was not of the front line cast. The issue is abreakdown or lack of communication between the offstage and onstage. That is where the problem stems from.

i realize that but this isn’t a small operation, there are hundreds of cast members in each area and thousands as a whole, it takes time to get information, and a guest doesn’t know how new something is, just be patient, they are doing their best.